Ken Van Dongen:
CLASS OF 1977
Clifton High SchoolClass of 1977
Clifton, NJ
Seton Hall University - Graduate SchoolClass of 1988
South orange, NJ
Montclair State CollegeClass of 1981
Montclair, NJ
Ken's Story
Life
Life owes me nothing, in fact, I owe much to life. I've got the best wife, and to think, we found each other in church! (First Lutheran, corner of Grove & Van Houten). Karen and I have been married since May 1985 and for some reason, she still loves me. We left Clifton in 1996, moving to Hillsborough, NJ.
She gave me the best two sons any guy could ever ask for. They're 18 and 16 now, and the 18 year old heads off to West Virginia Univ soon. He's earned his Eagle Scout, has videotaped for both the HS football and basketball teams, umpires LL baseball, and is the secretary of our church's Sunday school. This kid's got his head on straight. He's looking at teaching High School, and he'll be great at it.
The younger one right now wants to do sports management (doesn't everyone?), and he too, will earn his Eagle Scout. Right now he's on the JV golf team, and he goes to the elementary and middle schools and puts on anti-drug and anti-substance progams. This kid's going to go places, he's outgoing and has attitude to go along with his excellent high school record. My favorite line from him is "don't worry Dad, I'll go to a real expensive college someplace." Hmm...thanks a lot.
So when I put in the profile that I've accomplished more than I ever dreamed, you see why. Family is the most important thing to me, and not only am I such a lucky husband and proud father (if you haven't noticed), I also was able to have my mom healthy for 45 years of my life, and my dad is still going strong too. Plus I have a sister in Virginia who's now a proud Grandma, and a sister-in-law and brother-in-law in town who are my best friends.
On the fun side, we are Disney timeshare owners, which I always wanted. And even though I was never even a cub scout, I was asked to be scoutmaster of my sons' troop, which I was for 4 years! I did some things in my 40s that I would have been to chicken to do in my teens! I whitewater rafted the Gawley River in WVA, and I've hiked the Palisades Historic Trail, which is basically cliffs over the Hudson River. More importantly, though, I've seen many fine young men go through the troop. 3 still regularly converse with me, and visit me when the come home from college. Seeing confidence grow in a kid is a feeling that I really can't describe.
No folks, on a personal level, I wouldn't change a thing. On a professional level, well, I think I would have made a heckuva math teacher. But who knows, maybe someday.
School
Fun? Who had time for fun? Oh yeah, we did.
Basketball at the rec, everyday after school. And to my friends in the Underpaid Umpires Union (the UUU, of course), we were the Curt Flood's of the Clifton Rec. I was asked to umpire BabeRuth league games a couple of years afterwards, and the pay more than doubled. Oh yeah, one of my s...Expand for more
on's does Little League games now...gets $35/game! He laughs when I tell him we were paid $6 or $5, and the game had to be official for us to get paid.
I've got to say the teachers at CHS were darn good. They made Chemistry (Mr. Scheidemann) and Physics (Mr. St. Clair) fun, as did Mr. Zschack at WWJHS with Bio. And while I was struggling with the upper math classes at CHS, I slammed them in College, so thanks Ms. Lattimore, Meyer, and Davidson. But I think the two that really prepped me for college were the two best friends, Mr. Farber and Mr. Voghtlander. Of course, Farbs left this earth far too early.
Biggest crush? Oh Kathi's out there somewhere. Dated her for two years in HS and college. Man was she hot at the prom! We actually worked together for a bit after college, but were smart enough to know that we were no where close to being compatible at that point.
Now secret crush, well, that'll remain a secret. But I was so happy to see that at one point in her life anyway, she realized her dream, and I hope she's still living it.
College
Oh, yeah, Clifton High School Grad School, aka, Montclair State. Graduated in 1981. That small little drive up Van Houten Ave to Valley Road was done every day for 4 years.
Tinkered a little bit at the radio station, but frankly, commuting and working 2 jobs left little time for college fun. Yes, my kids are going to live away at school...that's more that 1/2 the college experience.
Visited old MSC, excuse me, MSU this past fall with my son. Little different now, 25 years later, huh? We're standing in a building to pick up our registration forms, and I'm looking around. He asked what I was looking at, and I told him, "Oh, this used to be the parking lot that we all would kill to get a spot in."
Workplace
I started at Prudential right out of college in 1981. 26 years later, I'm typing this from my office at Prudential in beautiful downtown Newark (right across the street from the new arena!)
seen a lot of changes here, from the fat dumb and happy insurance company that we were to the financial service giant that we are. Along the way, I got to commute to Tokyo. To think I was 40 years old, had never been out of the country, and all of a sudden on a Wednesday I was needed to pack my bags for Saturday. A shock to both the mind (missing the wife and kids) and body (jet lag has got to be one of the worst feelings!). Got to travel back and forth, 3 weeks there, 2 weeks here, for about a year. But then 9/11 came along, and I opted out of that commute.
So sure, life has been good here or I wouldn't have stayed this long. Now, it's a matter of sticking it out until the proverbial retirement package comes along. Plus, soon I'll have two college tuitions to pay! So, the career track has gone from growth to survival stage.
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